TeachRock

people:
Ice-T

(b. 1958) A native of Newark, N.J., who migrated to Los Angeles as a teen, Ice-T (born Tracy Marrow) is widely credited with having sparked the West Coast “gangsta” rap style. His music has exerted a deep influence on such artists as N.W.A., Compton’s Most Wanted, Snoop Dogg and many others. Before he turned 13, Marrow lost both parents to heart failure, and moved west to live with his father’s sister. There he attended South Central’s Crenshaw High, then considered one of the roughest in the nation because of its proximity to gang-controlled neighborhoods. A devotee of pimp-turned-author Iceberg Slim and...